Transcript

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APPLAUSE

>> The controversial new head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, spoke to EPA employees and laid out his vision for their role.>> I believe that we, as an agency, and we, as a nation, can be both pro-energy and jobs and pro-environment. That we don't have to choose between the two.

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>> But the two words that EPA administrator Scott Pruitt never mentioned, climate change, and that does not come as a surprise. Democrats and environmental groups unsuccessfully fought to block Pruitt's confirmation last week in committee hearings. Nearly 800 former EPA officials signed a letter urging the Senate to reject Pruitt's confirmation.

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Both President Donald Trump and Pruitt are climate change skeptics and have consistently challenged the views of 97% of scientists who agree that climate change is happening, and that human activity is the primary cause of it. On Tuesday Pruitt called on the EPA to better define its own regulations.

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>> Regulations ought to make things regular. Regulators exists to give certainty to those that they regulate. Those that we regulate ought to know what's expected of them, so that they can plan and allocate resources to comply.>> Pruitt also facing questions over his ties to the US energy industry during his time as Oklahoma's attorney general.

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An Oklahoma state judge ruled last week Pruitt will have to turn over thousands of emails Tuesday between his office and energy companies after a watchdog group sued for their release.